Category Archives: The Saints

Friends in Christ,

Today is the feast of St. Katharine Drexel.[i] St. Katharine is only the 2nd American-born saint. She was born into a wealthy family in Philadelphia in 1858,  she traveled quite a bit, and had an excellent education.  But at one point in her young life, she watched as her stepmother suffered with a long illness. As she cared for her, she saw that even all their money could not buy health or save a person from death.  She thought about her life, and what she could do with it.   

Katharine liked to read, and because of this, she had read about all the problems facing the American Indians out west. One time she made a trip to Europe, and was able to meet Pope Leo XIII.  She asked him, ‘Holy Father, could you please send more missionaries to Wyoming to help the Indians there?’ The pope replied, “Why don’t you become a missionary?”  His answer made her think very deeply,  and so back home, she visited the Dakotas,  met the Sioux leader, Red Cloud  and began doing all she could to help the Native American missions.   

Katharine could easily have married.  But after much thought, she decided to dedicate her life to helping the Indians as well as the African Americans.  A newspaper headline exclaimed:  ‘She gives up 7 million dollars to help the poor!’   

After three and a half years of training, she and her first group of Nuns opened a boarding school in Santa Fe.  Her sisters were called the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament for the Indians and the Colored. By 1942 she had a system of African American Catholic schools in 13 states, plus 40 mission centers and 23 rural schools.  Segregationalists harassed her work,  even burning a school in Pennsylvania, but she persevered.  

In all, she established 50 missions for Native Americans in 16 states. Her crowning achievement was the founding of Xavier University in New Orleans, the first university for African Americans.    

At age 77, she suffered a heart attack and was forced to retire to a quiet life of meditation, she died at age 96. Small notebooks and slips of paper record her prayers and ceaseless aspirations; she was canonized a saint in the year 2000.  

St. Katherine saw that she had but one life to live, and she found a way to make it a gift to God by helping those in need.   

Friends in Christ,

Today is the feast of St. Peter Damien.  He was born in the year 988 in Ravenna.  Losing his father and mother when quite young,  he was left in the hands of an older brother,  who treated him like a slave, actually more like an animal.

Working in terrible conditions with little relief, he suddenly had the good fortune to receive a large amount of money from someone; did he use it to escape his sad situation? no. He gave it to offer many Masses for his deceased father.   

But he had another brother who took pity on him, and sent him off to school to become educated.  Soon he was a professor, teaching others and quite successful.  But Peter continued to live a life close to the Lord, and he decided to abandon the success he had in the world. He became a hermit, and in fact, a man of great penances.  His fastings and penances have become legendary. Sometimes he would force himself to stay awake all night and pray, but in doing so, he brought on a problem of insomnia which took a lot to overcome. He learned from this the need for moderation in penance.  

Because of his holiness, his superiors would send him to their various monasteries to teach the monks. Soon, bishops and numerous Popes were calling on Peter Damien to reform many aspects of the Church, which he did.   

In 1057, really against his will, the Pope insisted that he become a Bishop.  Peter Damien continued to pound away at the need for morality and discipline, and he defended priestly celibacy when lax clerics questioned it.  He never asked others however, to do a penance he was not already doing!  

He was one of the great reformers of the Middle Ages. His style was powerful and blunt. In fact, he once severely rebuked the Bishop of Florence for wasting time in playing a game of chess. Immediately the Bishop admitted his sin of sloth!  

St. Peter Damien, though a powerhouse against sin and laxness, was in the confessional a very gentle, kind, and understanding confessor.  He also taught something in theology which is most astounding: He taught that for God, it is possible for him to erase an event from history.  He can cause something, after the fact, to not have happened.  This is very interesting when we think of our sins!  

Peter Damien often gave advice, and once he wrote this to his nephew: “Be sure to drive out the beasts from your heart; protect yourself daily by receiving the Flesh and Blood of the Lord. Let the foe see your lips reddened with the Blood of Christ.”  

Good morning Children of St. John Vianney! Today in Holy Mass, we remember two saints St. Cyril and Methodius, but in the Roman Martyrology for today, there is also another saint; this is why there are so many red hearts around, because it is the feast day of St. Valentine.

St. Valentine lived way back in the Roman Empire, when there were laws against being Catholic. You weren’t supposed to be a Catholic, but that didn’t stop people, they did it secretly.

Emperor Claudius had also issued an edict forbidding marriage. He needed to increase his army, and he thought that unmarried, single men made better soldiers. Now Valentine was a Catholic priest, and he therefore secretly met with young couples, and prepared them for the sacrament of marriage. Eventually he was arrested for doing this, but he didn’t care.

Emperor Claudius demanded that he stop this and also worship the pagan gods instead of Jesus. Valentine answered: ‘If you but knew the grace of God, you would turn your mind from idols and adore the true God who is in heaven.’ But the emperor’s heart was hardened, and he ordered that Valetine be put to death for following Christ.

Now while he was awaiting his death, he was in jail; there, Valentine prayed that the Lord would enlighten even the people in that jail. His jail guard, whose name was Asterius, had a blind daughter, and the daughter felt sorry for Valentine, and often brought him food in prison. In gratitude, he one day prayed over the girl, and her sight was miraculously restored. This led the whole household of Asterius to convert to the faith.

While in prison, Valentine would look out of his cell window, through the cold, iron bars into the blue sky, and doves would sometimes land near the window. He thought about the married couples he had prepared, and about his family. He wanted to send them a message. Well just within reach, grew a cluster of violets. Reaching between the bars, he took some of the leaves, which were shaped like a heart, and he poked holes in them with a thorn, forming words. “Remember your Valentine,” he would write. Attaching them to the doves, he sent them out. The next day, and the next, he sent more messages that simply said, “I love you, your Valentine” And so this legend would seem to be the origin of sending Valentines.

After performing many cures, and bringing so many people to love Jesus, St. Valentine was beheaded for the Faith, on Feb. 14th, 273, in Rome. He was a wonderful priest who became a martyr for Christ.

Today is a day that, following the example of St. Valentine, we send notes to people, to tell them we love them, and that we are glad they are our friends. Let’s be sure today to tell our parents that we love them very much.

Well, today is the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul –  St. Paul, who once tried to tear apart the Church. His conversion to Jesus Christ, changed the world. On this Feast Day, let us hear a bit of what St. John Chrysostom has to say …. more

Today is the Feast of St. Vincent.

St. Vincent was a Deacon, one of the Church’s 3 most famous deacons. His bishop, in Saragossa, Spain, had some kind of a speech impediment, and so he commissioned his Deacon Vincent to do the preaching for him in the diocese. His preaching was strong and fearless, and this angered …. more

Today is the feast of St. Hilary of Poitiers, France. He was born near the end of the 4th century, and he was a married layman who had a daughter named Apia; he was chosen to be a bishop. Yes, there were still sometimes married priests then, but those priests gave up all marital relations with their wives. Hilary lived … More